


Tangled Up In You

by untakenbeepun



Category: Kaleidotrope (Podcast)
Genre: Mutual Pining, Other, Secret Identities, Spiderman AU, alternate universe where Drew is spiderman, duh - Freeform, it's a big ol' mess, they're in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-25 01:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16652089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/untakenbeepun/pseuds/untakenbeepun
Summary: University's difficult enough without being a superhero. Drew's gotta deal with finals, ghastly group projects and sleepless nights writing essays, all while protecting Sidlesmith from whatever might do it harm.If that's not bad enough, he's also got to host a radio show with the guy obsessed with uncovering his secret identity who also happens to be the same guy he's falling in love with.God, will anyone just let Drew have a break?[SPIDERMAN AU]





	Tangled Up In You

**Author's Note:**

> spiderdrew, spiderdrew, he does whatever the spider do

“And listeners, exciting news!” Harrison’s voice lit up as he spoke, a tight curl of purple hair falling across his face as he gestured wildly with his hands. “Those of you that follow my Spiderblog will know that there have been no less than three Spidey sightings, only a few miles away from campus. Do you know what this means?”

Next to him, Drew raised an eyebrow. “...That you’re far too obsessed with men in Lycra?”

“No!” Harrison said, and then grinned. “Well, I mean, _yes,_ but what I was _going_ to say is that it probably means that whoever’s under that mask probably lives on campus.”

“...And?”

Harrison gave a long sigh. “Listeners, let the record show that Drew is making the face he always makes when I bring up Spiderman.”

“I’m not making a face.”

“You’re doing it right now!”

“This is my normal face!”

“Exactly!” Harrison folded his arms and gave a very exaggerated pout, before breaking out into an awful imitation of a British accent, “ _hello, I’m Drew and I’m too much of a grump to enjoy all the good things in this world_!”

“I’m not a grump!” Drew protested, “I just think there are some perfectly legitimate criticisms of the way this entire campus fawns over a guy in a mask.”

Harrison rolled his eyes to the heavens, “oh, here we go again...”

Drew scowled, as if weren’t enjoying this.  

Tuesday and Thursday nights found him sitting in a dimly-lit recording booth, crammed into a tiny space with a bunch of microphones, wires, and barely any room to sit. Outside, their producer Hal watched them like a hawk, feeding static into Drew’s headphones whenever he said something she didn’t like, and next to him, only a few inches away, was Harrison.

Harrison had crashed into his life, co-opted his music radio show and turned it into... well, Drew wasn’t sure how to define it anymore, really, it had become thirty minutes of the two of them bickering, Harrison interjecting every so often to plug his Spiderblog and to discuss rumours about possible sightings. He showed up with a new hair colour every week, always spoke like he couldn’t get the words out fast enough and had a habit of knocking things over when he was excited. And he was _always_ excited.

Harrison infuriated Drew to the very core of his being, and he was also undoubtedly and unquestionably the best part of Drew’s week.  

“I just think,” Drew began, “that we put Spiderman on too much of a pedestal. I mean, we don’t even know who this guy really is. He could be anyone. How do we know if he actually matches up to the ideal that we have in our heads?”

“It doesn’t matter who he is. His actions speak for him.”

“What happens when he makes a mistake? What happens when he does something that doesn’t match up to your shining idea of him?”  

“He won’t. I know he won’t.”

Drew stared at Harrison, who stared right back. There was that determination, set firmly in Harrison’s face, the kind of look he always had when he wasn’t going to budge on his opinion.

“How can you be so sure?” Drew said, quietly.

“If you’d read my Spiderblog, you’d know,” Harrison said. “Spiderman helps people. He looks out for everyone – unlike everyone in Congress. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from: if you’re in trouble, he’s there to help. Nobody like that could be bad.”

In the dim light of the recording booth, Harrison’s eyes seemed to shine.

“I guess I’m just never going to have the faith that you have,” Drew said, staring at his hands. “...How many people follow you on that blog of yours anyway?”

Harrison waggled his phone at Drew and showed him his follow-count, smiling smugly when Drew’s eyes bugged out.

“Holy— Are there even that many people on campus?” 

“It’s not just people from campus, Drew,” Harrison said. “People all over the world want to know about Spiderman.”

“Oh.”

“So, listeners, if anyone has any updates or additions to this discussion, text them in now! We wanna hear what you guys have to say about our friendly neighbourhood Spiderman!” Harrison said, that same bright enthusiasm shining through his voice again. 

Maybe thirty seconds later, Drew’s phone buzzed. He rolled his eyes as he read it out.

“ _Oh my God, Drew! Why don’t you follow Harrison’s Spiderblog?!! It’s so good!!”_ Drew read out in an exaggerated drawl of an American accent. “Look, I just don’t have this crazy obsession that everyone on this campus seems to have with a fully-grown man dressed as a spider, alright?”

 “Don’t worry listeners. I’ll make a Spiderhead out of Drew, yet. Just you wait,” Harrison said, looking up at Drew with a grin.

“Oh, God.”

Harrison’s phone lit up. “ _Harrison_ , it says, _last night I saw Spiderman sitting on the top of the C block dorms!”_ Harrison squealed. “Drew! Isn’t that your dorm?”

“...Yeah?”

“Drew! Don’t you see what this means?!” Harrison was shaking him now, his fingers curled around the sleeve of Drew’s hoodie. “There is a very strong possibility that Spiderman lives in your building!”  

“Well, I mean. I think that’s a bit of a stretch.”

“How is that a stretch?! We have visual evidence.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “We don’t have visual evidence. We have the word of an anonymous texter, and no offense, whoever you are, but it’s not credible proof. And even if Spiderman _was_ sitting on top of the C block dorms, that doesn’t mean he lives there.”  

“Spoilsport.”

“Realist.”

“I’m going to find him. I’m going to _investigate_ ,” Harrison said.

“You are not going to bother my dormmates because you think one of them might be Spiderman.”

“That’s _exactly_ what I’m going to do. Don’t worry listeners, Harrison’s on the case.”

Drew let out a very long sigh.

* * *

 

It was dark by the time Drew got back to his room.

Even after he’d flicked on the lights, it was still dim; the cheap round florescent lights never quite shone as bright as they could. His place was a mess, dirty clothes littering the floor, his desk space covered in papers, print-outs of reading that he wouldn’t finish in time for class. His moleskine was wide open on his bedside table, his scrawls from the night before pretty much illegible.

Drew had barely kicked his shoes off before he crashed onto his bed, pressing his face into his pillow and letting out a muffled groan.

His room was always far too quiet after an evening with Harrison.

It was like he became all too aware of the quiet, and the sounds within the silence just reminded him how empty his room was: the dripping of the bathroom tap, the faint sounds of the road outside. His bed was too big, and his room too small.

It was in these moments that Drew shoved his headphones on and played all the music he didn’t get to play on his radio show as loud as possible.

This time though, just before he reached for his headphones from his backpack, his phone buzzed.

It was Harrison’s Spiderblog. Drew had it on notifications.

How Harrison had managed to fish out new content and write a whole blog post for it in the hour since they’d finished broadcasting, Drew would never know, but he read the whole post, a smile edging at the corner of his lips.

There was a passion in Harrison’s eyes, a determination in his bones, an enthusiasm that Drew could never hope to match.

It was infuriating. And infectious.

He didn’t have much time to dwell on Harrison’s words, though, because just under a minute later there was a news alert flashing up on his phone.

Trouble in town – a break in of some kind. 

All trace of Drew’s exhaustion was gone as he sprung out of bed, pulling off his hoodie and heading to the window.

Balancing on the window frame, Drew made one last look back into his room, mask in hand.

There were so many things he wanted to tell Harrison. He wanted to tell Harrison everything about himself, every single secret. It was burning on the tip of his tongue every time they spoke,  

But some things, he reminded himself as he perched on his window sill, were kept secret to keep people safe.

And with that one last thought, Drew pulled the mask over his face, and Spiderman leapt out into the night air.


End file.
